1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a toner, a method of manufacturing the toner, and a developer, an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a process cartridge using the toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrophotographic image forming process generally includes forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor serving as a latent image bearer, developing the electrostatic latent image into a toner image with a developer, transferring the toner image onto a recording medium such as paper, and fixing the toner image on the recording medium.
The developer is of two types: one-component developer consisting primarily of a magnetic or non-magnetic toner and two-component developer consisting primarily of a toner and a carrier. In fixing the toner image, a method called heat roller method is widely used owing to its high energy efficiency. In the heat roller method, a heat roller directly presses against the toner image on the recording medium. However, the heat roller method has a problem that a large amount of electric power is required for fixing the toner image. Accordingly, toner is required to more improve low-temperature fixability.
Many attempts have been made to improve low-temperature fixability of toner. For example, JP-2003-167384-A proposes a toner including a colorant, a release agent, and two types of binder resins: polyester resins A and B. The polyester resin A is a crystalline aliphatic polyester resin having a specific X-ray diffraction pattern, and the polyester resin B is an amorphous polyester resin having a softening point higher than that of the polyester resin A. The polyester resins A and B are incompatible with each other. It is described therein that this toner has good low-temperature fixability and hot offset resistance.
JP-2012-8354-A proposes a method of manufacturing a specific toner which has crystalline organic particles on its surface. It is described therein that this toner can be transferred from a photoconductor onto an intermediate transfer medium, further onto an image support, at a high transfer efficiency, without causing image defect, providing image with high reproducibility for an extended period of time.
JP-2012-155121-A proposes a core-shell toner including a core particle containing a binder resin and a colorant and a shell layer on the surface of the core particle. It is described therein that this toner prevents the emergence of color points.